The theme of the Beast Herds army is all about having fast and hard-hitting troops. Sure, we don’t have cavalry, armour, or powerful shooting, but we are resilient in our own way and can deliver a punch before you know what hit you. This theme guided our decisions as we sought to address the feedback from the community, the Rules Team, and the Balance Board.

The Beast Herds book was considered to be at about the correct power level overall, but it needed to be adjusted to get rid of abusive builds (combos that were not fun to play against or were too powerful) and to create better internal balance. We also sought solutions such that units did not have to pay for advantages they did not plan to use.

The ability to ambush is central to this army. However, nobody wants to play against an opponent that can drop super powerful stuff behind your lines. So a few common-sense rules were put into place, such as Drunk units no longer being able to ambush. We also changed the pricing structure of ambushing units, and it will now be an optional upgrade rather than being built into the unit’s base price. We did this so that units that do not ambush no longer have to pay a premium for that ability.

Characters

Minotaur Warlords will no longer be able to field minotaurs as core units. One of the changes across all the army books is that core units need to not be elite – and minotaurs are nothing if not elite. However, to compensate for this loss, the new Lord of Bulls rule will cause all minotaurs to always remain frenzied.

Beastlords are a little cheaper now, and Hunting Call is an optional upgrade. Again, we didn’t want to pay for an unused ability. Hunting Call is a little different, as it now only works on units with the Pack Tactics special rule and can only be used to reroll failed ambush rolls. This ability was a little too powerful for units that are already on the border of being too powerful to ambush (looking at giants, centaurs, etc.). We also wanted to avoid situations where a player rerolled successful ambush roles in order to deny their opponent legitimate game turns. Also, Beastlords are a significant part of a new Longhorns special rule (see below).

Troops

Wildhorns are now cheaper. They lost Light Armour because we felt it was not fitting to the theme of the army, and we thought it better to make them as cheap as possible. Also, the ability to ambush is an optional upgrade for a flat cost for the unit (i.e. you don't pay per model, but per unit), but ambushing units are limited to 25 models. As said above, we wanted to be an aggressive army with the ability to ambush lots of stuff, but we are trying to balance that in a way that people will enjoy playing against us. Dropping a 50-model unit behind someone’s line does not make for an enjoyable game for our opponents.

Mongrel Herd changed in a similar as the Wildhorns – and for the same reasons. They now start at 20 models. Like above the ambush upgrade is a flat cost for the unit cost for units up to 30 models. Also, the Insignificant rule has been removed, so now characters can join them.

Mongrel Raiders now start with 10 models at a cheaper price. We wanted their price per model to represent their abilities, and across all the armies the RT is trying to ensure that any single unit is worth at least a decent amount of points. So, we thought that increasing the Mongrel Raiders starting size without increasing the overall cost very much was the best way to go.

Longhorns underwent quite a few minor changes in an attempt to balance several needs. We needed them, as an elite unit, to cost as much as elite units in other armies, but we also needed their abilities to reflect that price. So, they will see a drop in their base price, and additional models will be a bit more expensive. The cost to ambush is being reduced to only 1 ppm. But. BUT. HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!!! They now have the Bodyguard (Beastlord) special rule. That’s right! Longhorns and Beastlords just became a lot more attractive, which is good because they were underused in the last edition.

Razortusk Chariot got scythes, which was a much-needed improvement to differentiate this unit from the Raiding Chariot. It also gained an optional upgrade that grants charging benefits to units within 6 inches. (Remember our theme of being a fast army?

Gortach was too strong for its points, as evidenced by its inclusion in most tournament lists. It is now leadership 9 and no longer has ID(5) vs shooting. Also, if you field one or more Gortachs, then Minotaur Warlords become one-of-a-kind. (Two Minotaur Warlords and two Gortachs is simply too brutal of a combination.) We decided to make these changes in its rules in order to prevent a price increase.

Jabberwock received a price reduction and a slight increase in its Innate Defense upgrade. BUT, its aura ability now affects ALL units – even those that are ItP. We wanted to keep this monster cheap, and the ID upgrade was almost an auto-include. Also, we wanted the Jabberwock to be consistent in what it did for our army rather than being contingent on a particular army match-up. Overall, we feel it is much stronger.

Beast Giant was simply too good as an ambusher, but we did not want to lose the distinctiveness of this unit in our army. So, you can still field (a sober) ambushing Beast Giant, but it will cost you more to upgrade.

For the most part, Totems have stayed the same. Character totems are increasing in price a little bit for the sake of internal balance (they are much better than unit champion totems, but they did not cost much more). Also, two specific bound spells have changed a little bit.

Please keep in mind that the issues and proposals discussed in those recordings may not always reflect the latest rules update you will see when we finally release the armybook, but we hope it will give you nevertheless an interesting sneak peek

So, we are punishing WDG for 30 years of bad game design by GW? WDG=no longer fast, no longer resilient, no longer unique basically T9A took everything WDG had and piecemealed it out to other armies (ogres khans get marks, beast herd take speed, etc) and call it balanced meanwhile we WDG are sitting here with armies that our number us, have special rules they really are not taxed for (with marks we pay per model and for potential weapon used nor for upgrade to unit as it should be). Erstwhile, we remain outnumbered, out gunned, and out magicked, and out sped, yet keep all the drawbacks of the army like gaze of the gods. I gotcha ....